Saturday, September 1, 2012

I couldn't sit with someone who justified the invasion of Iraq with a lie

Desmond TutuThe Observer, Saturday 1 September 2012

"The immorality of the United States and Great Britain's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, has destabilised and polarised the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history.

Instead of recognising that the world we lived in, with increasingly sophisticated communications, transportations and weapons systems necessitated sophisticated leadership that would bring the global family together, the then-leaders of the US and UK fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand – with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us.....

On these grounds alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague...."

Fighters take anti-aircraft rockets and 16 captives in attack on air defence facility in east, says UK-based group

Reuters in Beirutguardian.co.uk, Saturday 1 September 2012

"Syrian rebels have seized an air defence facility and attacked a military airport in the east of the country, according to a UK-based monitoring group.

Saturday's attacks in the oil-rich province of Deir al-Zor follow rebel strikes against military airports in the Aleppo and Idlib areas, close to the border with Turkey.

The Syrian government has recently used helicopter gunships and fighter jets to attack rebels and residential areas.

Rebels in Deir al-Zor overran an air defence building early on Saturday, taking at least 16 captives and seizing an unknown number of anti-aircraft rockets, said Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Video posted on the internet by activists showed the officers and soldiers captured by the rebel fighters, and al-Arabiya television broadcast footage of what it said were rockets and ammunition seized in the raid....."

World focus: After Morsi’s bombshell, agreement on a policy over Syria looked more remote than ever

The Independent

"....But it all went badly wrong. The arrival of Egypt's President, Mohamed Morsi, was a coup: the first visit by an Egyptian leader since the Iranian revolution of 1979. And Mr Morsi's decision to come was a slap in the face for Washington, a further reason for the Iranian President to grin.

The grin vanished, however, when Mr Morsi got up to speak. Far from endorsing Tehran's strategy, the moderate Islamist from Cairo, who has now shown several signs of being his own man, went straight for the jugular, identifying the civil war in Iran's close ally Syria as the latest in the line of just struggles that started in Tunis and went on to Cairo.

"We should all express our full support to the struggle of those who are demanding freedom and justice in Syria," Mr Morsi declared. The world had "a moral duty" to support the Syrian opposition, he went on, whose struggle, was comparable to the Palestinians'. "The Palestinian and Syrian people are actively seeking freedom, dignity and human justice." And he wasn't finished. "Our solidarity with the struggle of Syrians against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy," he said, "is an ethical duty, and a political and strategic necessity."

It was a grave humiliation for Mr Morsi's hosts, and provoked the Syrian delegation, led by the Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, to walk out. He later condemned the Egyptian's remarks as "an interference in Syria's internal affairs" and "an instigation for continuing the shedding of...Syrian blood"....."

"The Syrian military's daily bombardment of Turkmen villages in the western mountains is forcing more and more people to flee their homes in search of refuge.Turkmen elders say the government offered them federal control of the region if they stayed loyal to Damascus.The Turkmen refused and now find themselves under attack.Neighbouring Turkey says it cannot cope with the increasing number of refugees coming across its border.Al Jazeera's Sue Turton has this exclusive report from the western mountains."

Since mid-July, fighting in and around Damascus has been escalating almost without interruption. The situation in many parts of Syria is currently edging towards irreversible deterioration. Assisting the fast-growing number of needy people is a top priority.

"The ICRC is extremely concerned about the welfare of the civilian population. People suffer every day. Many have lost their jobs, others their breadwinner. It is difficult to meet even basic food needs and to obtain other essentials. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced over recent weeks, and most of them, often whole families, are completely dependent on humanitarian assistance provided by local communities, the ICRC, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and others.

"People fear for their lives every minute of the day," said Marianne Gasser, the head of the ICRC delegation in Syria. "Humanitarian needs have risen sharply as civilians face ever more difficulty obtaining basic necessities, either because the items are not available in some parts of the country, or because the violence prevents people from going to get them."...."

In an interview with the pan-Latin American broadcaster Telesur, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says it might take six to 12 months to resolve the issue of his extradition to Sweden. Assange reveals that the whistle-blower website will soon release millions of emails related to the Syrian government

"....• President Morsi's speech in Tehran yesterday has "all but completed Iran's isolation", SimonTisdall writes in the Guardian.

Morsi's fierce condemnation of the Syrian regime, Iran's close ally, was as eloquent as it was piercing, and it came like a bolt from the blue. He didn't just rain on the Iranians' parade. It was as if Hurricane Isaac had taken a sharp turn north across the Caspian and unleashed its wrathful furies on an unsuspecting Tehran.

If a regime’s internal structure resembles that of internal colonialism, and if its actions resemble those of a foreign colonial power—bombing their own country’s cities from the air and adopting an Orientalist mindset in their dealings with their own people—then such a regime’s rule may truly be described as internal colonialism. Thus, the right of a people to resist that regime as if it were a foreign occupying power remains intact. This remains true regardless of the nature of that regime’s international foes, bad as they may be. The nature of the people’s resistance, and their rightful struggle in the face of the regime’s crimes against humanity, remains unchanged.

As for those who defend the regime, they too must shoulder some of the blame for its crimes—with all of the nonsense being peddled by some of these defenders notwithstanding. They can be said to be defending this system of internal colonialism: nothing will be powerful enough to wash their hands of this blood.

Nothing will wash away their complicity in the terrorizing of the opposition by aerial bombardment of the cities; nothing will absolve them of culpability in this harrowing moral failure. Just as was the case with those who justified colonial powers’ bombardment of cities on the grounds that terrorists were present in those cities. Keep in mind: the fascist regime we are speaking of here is bombing its own people.

To fault the people who are fighting against such an internally colonialist regime by pointing out that the regime’s decidedly evil international foes make natural allies for the opposition does not take away from the virtue and justice of the opposition’s cause; nor does pointing this out soften the blow of the regimes multiple crimes against humanity, such as the aerial bombardment of their own cities.

The resilience of the Syrian people, with such limited world support, and in the face of such aggressive bombardment—both physical and oratorical—by the regime’s proponents is without parallel in history. One would think that the regime’s supporters really were plotting and carrying out resistance operations against the Israelis when the Syrian revolution broke out. In fact, they have long become used to rhetoric: it was no different during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. As for the regime itself, they have never managed to bomb anybody save their own people, and that with unprecedented international apathy. The author of these words recalls well the difference between the different players here: there were some who chose to make peace with Israel, while some chose to resist. Some stood in solidarity with Gaza, while others conspired against her. Yet such stands must always be based on principle, and not subject to the whims of people who simply exploit the cause of Palestine for their own ends. Yet this same author also understands the sharp contrast between those who stand with an oppressed people as their cities are bombed from the air and those who stand by. This author will not simply abandon this very oppressed people merely because the regime’s enemies happen also to be villains.

There can be no defense for the bombing of Daryaa, and for the other towns and hamlets in the environs of Damascus. Nothing at all can wash away the crime of this months-long bombardment of Syria’s cities.

Gaza may not be ‘‘a livable place’’ by 2020 unless intensive efforts are made to improve infrastructure and services in fields like energy, health, water, and sanitation, a United Nations report concluded this week

"New York) – Syrian government forces have dropped bombs and fired artillery at or near at least 10 bakeries in Aleppo province over the past three weeks, killing and maiming scores of civilians who were waiting for bread.

The attacks are at least recklessly indiscriminate and the pattern and number of attacks suggest that government forces have been targeting civilians, Human Rights Watch said. Both reckless indiscriminate attacks and deliberately targeting civilians are war crimes.

One attack in the city of Aleppo on August 16, 2012, killed up to 60 people and wounded more than 70. Another attack in the city on August 21 killed at least 23 people and wounded 30.

“Day after day, Aleppo residents line up to get bread for their families, and instead get shrapnel piercing their bodies from government bombs and shells,” said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch who has just returned from Aleppo. “Ten bakery attacks is not random – they show no care for civilians and strongly indicate an attempt to target them.”Human Rights Watch researchers visited six of the attacked bakeries and interviewed witnesses:

Syrian government forces have dropped bombs and fired artillery at or near at least 10 bakeries in Aleppo province over the past three weeks, killing and maiming scores of civilians who were waiting for bread, Human Rights Watch said today..

The attacks are at least recklessly indiscriminate and the pattern and number of attacks suggest that government forces have been targeting civilians, Human Rights Watch said. Both reckless indiscriminate attacks and deliberately targeting civilians are war crimes.

One attack in the city of Aleppo on 16 August 2012, killed up to 60 people and wounded more than 70. Another attack in the city on 21 August killed at least 23 people and wounded 30.

“Day after day, Aleppo residents line up to get bread for their families, and instead get shrapnel piercing their bodies from government bombs and shells,” said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch who has just returned from Aleppo. “Ten bakery attacks is not random – they show no care for civilians and strongly indicate an attempt to target them.”......."

The battle between President Assad's regime and the Free Syrian Army is a life-or-death struggle. But whatever its outcome, this is a civil war being fought on a faultline that threatens the entire Middle East

Martin Chulovguardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 August 2012

"When power starts to shift in the Middle East, its people have long known what to expect. Challenges to authority have rarely been met with a promise of consensus or inclusion. Strong-arm suppression – the more forceful the better – has been the default reaction to dissent. The price has usually been brutal.

Syrians who wanted an end to regime dominance knew the rules when they started demanding changes in the region's most uncompromising police state in March last year. Now, 18 months and more than 23,000 bodies later, and with no end in sight to the chaos ravaging the country, their worst fears are being realised on a scale that continues both to horrify and numb.

And yet, the events of the past 18 months have shattered one of the abiding guidelines to life under totalitarian rule – that absolute power is uncontestable. If anything has so far been achieved through the bedlam now rumbling through Syria and indeed other parts of the Arab world, it is a new reality: the power of the street has exposed the fragility of authority......

....A realignment of power appears to be top of the wish list for many fighters and residents alike in Syria's opposition strongholds. But such a shift will not be contained within Syria's borders – a fact that is causing increasing alarm outside the country and fuelling fears that changes more profound than anything since the fall of the Ottomans are starting to take place in the Middle East.....

In dozens of conversations the Guardian has had with Syrians in recent months – some diehard regime backers and others just as deeply committed to the opposition cause – a clear sense has emerged that the popular uprising that started it all in the southern city of Deraa has been dwarfed by something far more significant......"

"(New York) – Syria’s neighbors should keep their borders open to the large and growing number of refugees fleeing Syria, while donor countries should generously support them. Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon have mostly opened their borders to more than 200,000 refugees from neighboring Syria, but in the past week some officials in these countries have said they are reaching their limit and may soon close their borders.

Despite the pressure of numbers, refugees from Syria should be allowed to cross into neighboring countries and remain there legally without fear of detention, confinement in closed camps, or deportation, Human Rights Watch said.

“For many years, Syria kept its borders open to Palestinians, Lebanese, and Iraqis fleeing conflict in their countries and allowed them free movement,” said Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director at Human Rights Watch. “Today, as Syrians flee horrific violence, neighboring countries should extend them the same hospitality.”...."

"Amnesty International condemns an Israeli court’s verdict that the government of Israel bears no responsibility in the death of Rachel Corrie, saying the verdict continues the pattern of impunity for Israeli military violations against civilians and human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

The verdict shields Israeli military personnel from accountability and ignores deep flaws in the Israeli military’s internal investigation of Corrie’s death.

“Rachel Corrie was a peaceful American protester who was killed while attempting to protect a Palestinian home from the crushing force of an Israeli military bulldozer,” said Sanjeev Bery, Middle East and North Africa advocacy director for Amnesty International USA.

“More than nine years after Corrie’s death, the Israeli authorities still have not delivered on promises to conduct a 'thorough, credible and transparent' investigation. Instead, an Israeli court has upheld the flawed military investigation and issued a verdict that once again shields the Israeli military from any accountability."....."

"Life in the small, northwest Syrian town of Salma has become hell, says one paediatrician who decided to stick around. Where 10,000 people once lived tucked into the hills of the Idlib governorate, now only a few remain. The Syrian army has stationed tanks above even unimportant Salma, and their shelling is unpredictable and deadly. Civilians and rebels mix in the town's shattered streets, where life goes on as best it can. Sue Turton reports from Salma."

AFP reports that rebels claimed to have destroyed five helicopters at Taftanaz:Abu Mossab, a rebel who participated in the attack, told AFP via Skype that the rebels had shelled the Taftanaz military airport with two captured military tanks and had destroyed five military helicopters. The claims could not immediately be independently verified.It quotes the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights as saying 14 government troops were killed in the fighting at Taftanaz......"

The uprisings have raised great economic expectations on the part of the majority of Tunisians and Egyptians.

By Joseph MassadAl-Jazeera

"....Sponsoring counter-revolutions

Hence, unlike the rest of the Arab world where the US and its West European allies quickly moved from sponsoring the dictators to sponsoring the counter-revolutions to restore them or a similar regime in their stead (Yemen) and then later moved to establish a new alliance with the victorious Islamists (in Egypt and Tunisia), they opted to support the uprisings in Libya and Syria and take them over rapidly to ensure an outcome that serves their interests (France, Italy and the United Kingdom secure the oil while the US hopes to move its AFRICOM military command headquarters from Stuttgart to Libya once the dust settles).

While in Libya, the takeover was quick and successfully executed, in Syria, it ran into trouble on account of the differing nature of the regime and the opposition and the class coalitions that support them.

What the US and the new regimes in Tunisia and Egypt are debating at the moment is how much representativity and accountability the new system should have and whether granting certain measures of representativity and accountability could lead to future unpredictable demands for economic rights by the majority of the people in both countries, which could further threaten the interests of the US and its local regime and class allies.

The recent visit by the head of the International Monetary Fund to Cairo to discuss Egypt's request for $4.8bn could result, as in the South African precedent, in introducing further contractual and legal bans on improving the lives of the poor in the country. The next few months will clarify the final arrangement of governance in both countries, especially in light of the increasing and mobilised popular opposition to any anti-democratic measures in both of them.

The uprisings have raised great economic expectations on the part of the majority of Tunisians and Egyptians (not to mention other Arabs across the region) who languish in utter poverty thanks to neoliberal economics, and who are no longer shy in pressing their economic agenda to centrestage.

The battle of the seasons is on; while the Americans are pressing on for an American Spring in the Arab world that will only be experienced as another American-sponsored Summer drought for the majority of the people of the region, the Arab peoples are working to transform the recent uprisings into nothing short of a cold American Winter."

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

"Free Syrian army members and Syrian government forces continue to clash. The government is reportedly using artillery, helicopter gunships and even fighter jets, and the armed opposition is fighting back. A car bomb also struck Damascus, killing 12 people on Tuesday. And the refugee situation along Syria's border is escalating, with the UN expecting a dramatic increase in numbers as violence escalates from both sides. Al Jazeera's Rula Amin reports from Beirut."

Assad's Foreign Minister gives his first interview to a Western journalist since the conflict began

You will find the following much more interesting than Fisk's interview:

Obituary for the Pillsbury Doughboy

"Dear friends,

It is with the saddest heart that I pass on the following. Please join me in remembering a great icon.

The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly-greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Cap'n Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours as long- timefriend, Aunt Jemima, delivered the eulogy, describing Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very "smart" cookie, wasting much of his dough onhalf-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he -- even still, as a crusty old man -- was considered a roll model for millions.

Toward the end, it was thought he would rise again, but alas, he was no tart.

Doughboy is survived by his wife, Play Dough; two children, John Dough and Jane Dough; plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

Three years after Corrie's death, an Israeli army officer who emptied the magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, Iman al-Hams, and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years oldwas cleared by a military court.

Iman was shot and wounded after crossing the invisible red line around an Israeli military base in Rafah, but she was never any closer than 100 yards. The officer then left the base in order to "confirm the kill" by pumping the wounded girl full of bullets. An Israeli military investigation concluded he had acted properly.

Tuesday's court verdict in Haifa will have done nothing to end that climate of impunity. Nor anything that would have us believe that Israel's repeated proclamation that it has the "most moral army in the world" is any more true than its explanation of so many Palestinian deaths."

"An Israeli judge has cleared Israel’s military of responsibility for the killing of the U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie. A 23-year-old college student, Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza nine years ago. She was standing in front of a Palestinian home to help prevent its demolition. Today’s ruling came in a wrongful death civil suit brought by Corrie’s family, with the judge rejecting any negligence on the part of the driver and finding that Corrie’s death resulted from "an accident she brought upon herself." Today’s ruling follows an earlier internal Israeli army investigation that also exonerated the bulldozer drivers. The Corrie family had been seeking a symbolic $1 in damages, as well as legal fees...."

• France urges opposition to form provisional government• Helicopter crashes in flames over Damascus• Heavy death toll reported in capital

Brian Whitakerguardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 August 2012

"....Iran 'fighting in Syria'

A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard appears to have given the first public acknowledgment that the Islamic republic is militarily involved in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"Today we are involved in fighting every aspect of a war, a military one in Syria and a cultural one as well," Gen Salar Abnoush, commander of IRGC's Saheb al-Amr unit, told volunteer trainees in a speech Monday.

The comments, reported by the Daneshjoo news agency, which is run by regime-aligned students, couldn't be independently verified. Top Iranian officials had previously said the country isn't involved in the conflict......"

"(Jerusalem) – The Palestinian Authority (PA) should urgently act to hold accountable the police officials responsible for recent beatings of peaceful demonstrators in Ramallah in the West Bank. Police severely beat protesters in the street and dragged others to a police station, where the police continued to beat and kick them. At least six protesters required hospitalization.

A coalition of Palestinian human rights groups released a report on August 27, 2012, that identified several senior police officials who were present and in charge of the forces that beat protesters in Ramallah’s main square on June 30 and July 1.

“Two months and four reports later, the Palestinian Authority has not yet brought to justice the police officers responsible for brutal assaults on peaceful protesters in Ramallah’s main square,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The PA should end its foot-dragging and promptly investigate and prosecute abuse by members of its security forces.”....."

PNC polls can bring the Palestinians closer to self-determination, while restoring their legitimate right to resistance.

Haidar Eid(Associate Professor at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza)Al-Jazeera

"Following assurances and promises by US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to spread democracy in the Middle East only to see the destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, a third of the Palestinian population (those in the 1967 territories) voted against the existing Palestinian National Authority government, led by Fatah. Instead they voted in favour of what seemed then to be the only political force capable of challenging the remnants of the Oslo Accords.

They did not vote based on their own political perspectives, but rather to punish a “Third-worldish” authority characterised by: corruption; suppression of freedom; de-prioritisation of the national struggle; minimisation of the Palestinian people to the population of the West Bank and Gaza; security coordination under the oversight of a US general; the steady growth of layers of unproductive bureaucracy and comprador class; suppression of the national forces of opposition parties......

The time of revolutions

Today, as part of the falsely constructed binary between these two authorities, comes the call to register at polling stations and to prepare for new PLC elections as part of a new reconciliation agreement (again!) between them. The choice again is between the religious right and the secular right, with a third, necessary alternative absent.

What is the desired outcome of these elections? And are they radically distinct from those of their predecessors? Are they meant to address the crucial mistakes that plagued the previous two elections or resulted from them? This time, will the right to self-determination as defined by every Palestinian appear on the ballot?....."

Monday, August 27, 2012

Her blonde hair, megaphone and orange fluorescent jacket with reflective stripes made 23-year-old Rachel Corrie easily identifiable as an international activist on the overcast spring afternoon in 2003 when she tried to stop an advancing Israeli military bulldozer.

The young American's intention was to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah refugee camp, close to the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Scores of homes had already been crushed; Corrie was one of eight American and British volunteers acting as human shields for local families.

"She was standing on top of a pile of earth," said fellow activist and eyewitness Richard Purssell, from Brighton, at the time. "The driver cannot have failed to see her. As the blade pushed the pile, the earth rose up. Rachel slid down the pile. It looks as if her foot got caught. The driver didn't slow down; he just ran over her. Then he reversed the bulldozer back over her again."

The question of whether the driver of the Caterpillar D9R bulldozer saw the young woman in the orange jacket, and drove deliberately at and over her, has been at the centre of the Corrie family's decade-long battle for accountability and justice.

On Tuesday that struggle is set to culminate when an Israeli court gives its verdict in a civil lawsuit that the family have brought against the state of Israel.

An Israeli Defence Forces investigation has already found that its forces were not to blame and that the bulldozer driver had not seen the activist. No charges were brought and the case was closed. The IDF report concluded: "Rachel Corrie was not run over by an engineering vehicle but rather was struck by a hard object, most probably a slab of concrete which was moved or slid down while the mound of earth which she was standing behind was moved." Corrie and other International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists were accused by the investigators of "illegal, irresponsible and dangerous" behaviour.

Whatever the verdict in the Haifa court tomorrow, the case of Rachel Corrie sheds light on the Israeli army's crimes.

By Ben WhiteAl-Jazeera

"....Shocking evidence

Evidence submitted to the court included extracts from the battalion operations log on the day Rachel Corrie was killed, March 16, 2003. The summary given that evening by the deputy battalion commander (referred to as "Sh R") included the following:

We must not, as an army, allow such incidents to disrupt the ongoing missions. We are aware of the problem of the foreigners in this area and, as a policy, we do not halt activity because of the presence of foreigners in the area in order to avoid creating a dangerous precedent... But again, this incident was unavoidable and theseforeigners should be dealt with and prevented from entering the Strip.

Here, the IDF officer states that the reason why the bulldozers did not stop their work, despite the presence of foreign activists, was not because of any "security" imperative but to avoid creating a "precedent"......"

"Our own beloved Free Syria Army has actually advertised its own murders on YouTube"

By Robert Fisk

".....kill civilians, thousands of refugees cross the border and CNN reports – as it did on Friday night – that refugees cursed Bashar al-Assad as they fled their homes.

And I cannot forget how Al Jazeera, loathed by Bashar now as it was once hated by Saddam, came back from Basra in 2003 with terrifying footage of dead and wounded Iraqi women and children who had been shredded by British artillery firing at the Iraqi army. And we don't need to mention all those Afghan wedding parties and innocent tribal villages pulverised by US gunfire and jets and drones.

The Syrian military, whether it admits it or not – and I'm not happy with the replies I got from Syrian officers on the subject last week – work with the shabiha (or "village defenders" as one soldier called them), who are a murderous, largely Alawite rabble who have slaughtered hundreds of Sunni civilians. Maybe the International Court in the Hague will one day name Syrian soldiers responsible for such crimes – be sure they won't touch the West's warriors – but it will be impossible for the Syrian army to write the shabiha out of the history of their war against the "terrorists", "armed groups", Free Syria Army and al-Qa'ida.

The attempted disconnect has already begun. Syrian troops are fighting at the request of their people to defend their country. The shabiha have nothing to do with them. And I have to say – and no, yet again, I am not comparing Bashar with Hitler or the Syrian conflict with the Second World War – that the German Wehrmacht tried to play the same narrative game in 1944 and 1945 and, then, in a much bigger way, in post-war Europe. The disciplined lads of the Wehrmacht never indulged in war crimes or genocide against the Jews in Russia, Ukraine or the Baltic states or Poland or Yugoslavia. No, it was those damned SS criminals or the Einsatzgruppen or the Ukrainian militia or the Lithuanian paramilitary police or the proto-Nazi Ustashe who besmirched the good name of Germany. Bulls***, of course, though German historians who set out to prove the criminality of the Wehrmacht still face abuse......"

Amateur footage purports to show Syrian rebels shoot down an army helicopter as it bombarded the Damascus neighbourhood of Jobar on Monday. Witnesses said the helicopter was engulfed in flames after it was hit, before coming down in the nearby district of al-Qaboun. Syrian state TV said a helicopter had crashed in Damascus, but gave no further details

".....With its forces stretched thin by fighting on several fronts, President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been increasingly using air power against the rebels – both helicopters and warplanes. The army has been fighting major battles against rebels in Damascus and its suburbs for more than a month while engaged in what appears to be a stalemated fight against rebels for control of northern Aleppo, the country's largest city and commercial capital.

The rebels are not known to have any answer to the regime's warplanes except anti-aircraft guns that they mostly use as an anti-personnel weapon. Last month, rebels claimed to have shot down a Russian-made MiG fighter, but the government blamed the crash on a malfunction....."

"CAIRO: Leading Bahrain activist Mariam al-Khawaja was deported from Egypt on Sunday after arriving at the Cairo International Airport after her name was on a list of persons not allowed into the country, officials were quoted as saying by the official MENA news agency.

The report said the female activist was on an “airport entrance ban” put forward by Egypt’s security forces.

The woman, however, is a leading human rights activist and the foreign relations chief of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. The rights organization has come into international headlines after numerous members have been arrested and put on trial in Bahrain for pushing for change in the small gulf kingdom.

The rights organization was originally founded by Khawaja’s father, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who is now serving a life sentence in Bahrain for “crimes against the state.”

The woman had visited Egypt in April, but was nearly deported then as well, local reports said, but was eventually allowed into the country by security forces at the airport."

Rebels claim to have scored rare aerial victory by shooting down government gunship amid renewed fighting in capital.

Al-Jazeera

"A Syrian military helicopter has caught fire and crashed after it was apparently hit during fighting between government forces and rebels in the capital Damascus, an activist group has said.

State-run media on Monday confirmed the crash in Damascus but gave no details. Several videos posted on YouTube showed the helicopter flying above buildings while flames gradually engulf it as it abruptly turns, nose dives and spins toward the ground before disappearing from view.

The downing of the helicopter comes as activists report intense new fighting in the suburbs around Damascus, including a possible new massacre of more than 300 people in the Daraya district....."

Sunday, August 26, 2012

"A mosque containing Sufi Muslim graves has been bulldozed in the centre of Tripoli, Libya, a day after Sufi shrines in the city of Zlitan were wrecked and a mosque library was burned. The demolition of the large Sha'ab mosque happened in broad daylight on Saturday, drawing condemnation from government officials and Libyans across the country and abroad. Witnesses say a group of Salafi Muslims who disapprove of shrines and tombs were behind the attack, and that it took place as security forces looked on. Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh reports."

"Several hundred bodies have been found in a town near Damascus after a ferocious assault by the Syrian army, according to a watchdog group, as activists accused government forces of a gruesome "massacre".

A grisly video issued by the opposition showed bodies piled up wall-to-wall in a mosque complex in Daraya after a massive offensive by troops battling to crush insurgents who have regrouped in the outskirts of the capital.

"The UN Relief and Works Agency have said there are around half a million Palestinians in Syria - who over the decades fled wars involving Israel.

It says 1,000 left their homes in July, but that number has risen now to 3,000 as fighting intensifies in the capital. As fighting continues in Syria many Palestinian refugees caught in the crossfire are fleeing across the border to Lebanon.

However, they are largely unwanted in Lebanon, which itself is already home to more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees.

"Witnesses have said an armed group, claming to be Salafi's, carried out the assault on a Sufi shrine, it is the tomb of al-Asmar-the last resting place of a 15th century Muslim scholar.

Mohamed al-Teer, a witness, have said:"A group of criminals who have committed crimes against people inside and outside Zliten, entered and took cover in the mosque and fired at the revolutionaries. So the revolutionaries fired back. They killed and captured some of them and the others escaped."

The attackers have also set fire to a historic library, reducing years of academic and religious writing to ash.

While the official line from the government is condemnation, there are reports security forces stood by and just let this destruction go ahead.

".....This is just one young man's story, of course. Except that – remarkably – it is corroborated by one of the soldiers who came looking for him that morning. One of 50 testimonies on the military's treatment of children – published today by the veterans' organisation Breaking the Silence – describes the same episode, if anything more luridly than Hafez does. "We had a commander, never mind his name, who was a bit on the edge," the soldier, a first sergeant, testifies. "He beat the boy to a pulp, really knocked him around. He said: 'Just wait, now we're taking you.' Showed him all kinds of potholes on the way, asked him: 'Want to die? Want to die right here?' and the kid goes: 'No, no...' He was taken into a building under construction. The commander took a stick, broke it on him, boom boom. That commander had no mercy. Anyway the kid could no longer stand on his feet and was already crying. He couldn't take it any more. He cried. The commander shouted: 'Stand up!' Tried to make him stand, but from so much beating he just couldn't. The commander goes: 'Don't put on a show,' and kicks him some more."

Two months ago, a report from a team of British lawyers, headed by Sir Stephen Sedley and funded by the UK Foreign Office, accused Israel of serial breaches of international law in its military's handling of children in custody. The report focused on the interrogation and formal detention of children brought before military courts – mainly for allegedly throwing stones.

For the past eight years, Breaking the Silence has been taking testimonies from former soldiers who witnessed or participated in human rights abuses in the occupied territories......"